1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods for determining the dominant cerebral hemisphere of a subject and in particular, to novel methods and systems for recognizing and implementing a subject""s dominant hemisphere for therapeutic and other uses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Understanding how a primate or human brain functions in making decisions and implementing voluntary and involuntary movements has been studied and analyzed for many years. At one time, there was a theory that there is contralaterality of motor control in humans. However, substantial clinical evidence suggests that the contralaterality theory is problematic. Thus, during surgical procedures and other therapeutic treatments involving the brain, errors in judgment in terms of which lobe of the cerebrum controls which movements can be made by the attending physician since a person""s actual xe2x80x9cwiringxe2x80x9d for either left or right handedness might have been reversed by environmental factors, but the fact remains that their actual dominant hemisphere is as genetically predisposed.
That around 90% of the population is right handed and the remainder is not, is an agreed upon statistic. Yet there is no technical definition of handedness, only arbitrary inventories. But even those have been disputed on several grounds, including that a person""s stated manual preference does not always, or even often, match their observed performance; taking us back to where we started. Clearly a technical definition of handedness is needed to escape from the dilemma thus posed as well as a development of an understanding of the neural underpinning of the prior observations is needed in the art. Such an understanding provides the framework for software to be programmed in the control of robotics or prosthesis, and additionally will be useful to surgeons during procedures when it is highly advantageous to know for a certainty which cerebral hemisphere of the subject being treated is dominant.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method and system for determining the dominant cerebral hemisphere of a subject. There is further provided a method and system for using information obtained regarding hemisphere dominance for programming electronic devices such as robots, prostheses, as well as methods for using such information during treatment and surgical procedures in order to obtain superior function and/or movement when there is injury or disease to an area of the brain. The present invention employs a vectorial view of the role of callosum in the underpinning lateralities of speech and handedness, and as such, provides a technical definition of handedness (i.e., which hemisphere of the cerebrum is dominant in a particular individual subject). This technical definition is then used to completely accurately replicate or predict voluntary and involuntary movements of the subject and this information, in turn, can be utilized in the field of prosthetics and robotics in order to obtain more accurate depiction of brain function and hence, more authentic replication of movement.
Additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects, features and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combination particularly pointed out in the appended claims.